


The Keller chapter

by GreenPhoenix



Category: Oz (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-28
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-15 15:10:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3451721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenPhoenix/pseuds/GreenPhoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’s a footnote in the big book, but a big part of the Keller chapter.<br/>Toby, after everything, telling his tale to a crime reporter.<br/>For Sahem. Thanks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Keller chapter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sahem62896](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sahem62896/gifts).



She’s very pretty and young enough to be his granddaughter.  
Toby doesn’t stir for her, he’s not wired like that anymore. Besides, she’s no Keller.  
Her name is Bethany Simmons, and she’s a crime reporter turned true crime book writer.  
She’s writing a book about famous serial killers of the nineties.   
Yeah.  
The new warden is some Latino called Hernandez, and he’s allowed her access to Toby for a chapter about one Christopher Keller.  
Toby is bored enough to talk to anyone now, and he’s refused to talk about Chris for decades. To reporters anyhow.  
He’s the only one left who knew Keller in person; well expect for one more guy.  
When the legend of the sharp and deadly killer Keller spread, reporters came a knocking en masse.  
Toby’s refused to talk until now.  
He’s old enough not to care anymore.  
Ten years ago Miguel Alvarez got shanked. He was high as a kite, and some Aryan did him.  
Torquemada wore widow’s weeds for a few years. Guess he really loved his Miguel.  
Toby knows what that felt like.  
His daughter knows the feeling as well. She’s too alike him, beautiful and bright and addicted to danger.

*  
Not trying to scare her, he sits silent till she’s ready to speak.  
“What was he like?” she asks and adjusts her pink blouse.  
“Like a god,” says Toby and coughs.  
“Be serious.”  
“I am. He was Zeus or Hades and we were mere mortals. Well, maybe I was a demi-god.  
Nothing mattered to the Greek gods, they ruled supreme over the mortals. They had no conscience. That was Chris Keller, a bright and ruthless and beautiful god.”  
“Did you love him?”  
“Yes. I loved him more than alcohol and heroin and sanity. Or my late wife.”  
“Were you addicted to him?”  
“Yes. Being fucked by him was like being on fire.”  
“That good?”  
“It was Oz, every sensation was heightened.”  
“He did terrible things to you.”  
“Again, it was Oz. I tried to kill him twice.”  
“You did?”  
“Yes. I still loved the asshole.”  
“Did he love you?”  
“Yes.”  
“Do you know about his background?”  
“No. He never talked about his family, only the wives. Mostly he just talked about sex with them.“  
“They say he killed his father.”  
“If they say so, he probably did,” says Toby, bright blue eyes shiny.  
“What did he do to Vern Schillinger?”  
“He made me kill him during a production of Macbeth.”  
“Really?” Bethany looks incredulous.  
“Yes.”  
“I thought it was a tall tale.”  
“No. All true,” says Toby and it’s as like he is describing events from a novel.  
“It was an accident?”  
“No. Keller arranged it. I didn’t want to kill him.”  
“Even though he had your son killed?”  
“Even so. I had some conscience then.”  
“Does your conscience come and go?”  
“It’s Oz. so, yeah.”  
“You keep saying that. Could you describe it to someone who’s never been there?”  
“It’s like being in a war zone. Now, no one touches me, but back then I was fair game. I was upper class, kind of cute, innocent, bitch material.”  
“Vern raped you.”  
He nods. “And branded my ass with a swastika. It’s all wrinkly now; but I used to have a nice ass. Keller said as much. Now his ass was one of the wonders of the world.”  
“Did you..top him?”  
He should not answer that, but he is bored.  
“Yeah. He let me. He wouldn’t let anyone else, or so he said. Mostly he fucked me.”  
“In many ways.”  
“Still miss him,” he says.  
“Has there been anyone after him?”  
Toby laughs. “One or two. No one serious, just fucking. Had me a bitch once.”  
“Like Schillinger did?”  
“No. Yes. I don’t know. He was terrified and I protected him and he rolled over. I did him a few times. “ The guy had a name, but Toby chooses not to remember that, preferring to think of Chris instead.  
“Prison does that to you.”  
“Yes.”  
“Brutalizes you. Makes you a monster.”  
“Well, yeah. Or it makes you who you always were deep inside.”  
“Were you like that deep down?”  
“I killed a little girl with my car, so yeah. I’m a felon, a murderer and an addict. I’m no better than Chris was. Maybe that’s why he loved me.”  
He is old and tired now, and Keller whispers to him each night. The other lovers are all forgotten. They didn’t really matter.  
He doesn’t have a Busmalis, like Bob did, but has Ryan he supposes.

*  
“What made Keller kill those boys?” asks Bethany.  
“I don’t know. He never said. Shame, maybe.”  
“For being into guys?”  
“Yeah. I guess. Chris didn’t talk about that either. He said he never loved anyone like he loved me.”  
“He didn’t kill you,” says Bethany. “That’s love for a serial killer.”  
Toby chuckles. He supposes it’s true.  
His daughter is an addict, married to a serial cheater, and her daughter is a teenage rebel.  
Harry is okay. He has to be.  
He never comes to visit, and Holly never sees him anymore.  
*  
“Did you regret him?” asks Bethany.  
“Yes. No. I never know.”  
“You don’t wonder what your life would have been without him?”  
“No. It is what it is. I’ll see him soon.”  
“Do you think so?”  
“I know so. Where he went, I will go. We’re the same kind of people,” says Toby, and smiles sadly.  
“I’m sorry.”  
“Don’t be. I made my choices, now I live with them. “  
She has more questions and he answers them all.  
*  
He goes to see Ryan.  
They play cards and diss the newbies, thinking they’ re so tough.  
He will dream about Chris as usual, think of his face and how he’ll see it soon.  
He’s tired of life, dull and grey and bland.  
Would Keller be dull and grey if he lived?  
Do people like him turn grey, or do they burn out quickly?  
Toby finds no answers and Ryan isn’t asking.  
Toby’s a footnote in the big book, and a large part of the Keller chapter.


End file.
